MORTGAGE

U.S. mortgage applications fell for a second straight week, largely reflecting a drop in demand for home refinancing loans, an industry group said on Wednesday.

The audacious rise in the Dow industrials to a record will do little to prevent the millions of new "For Sale" signs likely to dot U.S. lawns soon.

The number of American's signing contracts to buy homes dropped to the lowest level ever in August new data shows.

Sherrill Zenie said all she wanted was a piece of the American Dream, but what she got was a kick in the rear.Zenie is one of a legion of a relatively new type of homeowner, a flipper, who sought fast money by rapidly buying and selling homes to capture a profit on each as prices soared.

U.S. home loan applications slumped last week after climbing for three straight weeks, an industry group said on Wednesday, as falling demand for home purchase loans overshadowed a fourth consecutive weekly rise in refinancing requests.

Taxpayers who lose their homes to foreclosure would no longer face an untimely tax bill from the Internal Revenue Service on the unpaid mortgage debt under a bill approved by a U.S. House of Representatives panel on Wednesday.

Nationstar Mortgage, the subprime unit of Fortress Investment Group LLC, said it is no longer accepting new loan applications from brokers, a signal the lender is winding down operations.

Countrywide Financial Corp, the largest U.S. mortgage lender, said on Monday it expects to modify terms on nearly 25,000 home loans this year to help people avoid foreclosures.

An advocacy group for low-income housing on Monday accused Morgan Stanley of discriminating against minority borrowers seeking mortgages.

Bankruptcy courts would be allowed to alter mortgages written by predatory lenders in moves that could save 600,000 Americans from foreclosure, according to the author of a bill introduced in the U.S. Representatives on Friday.

Some borrowers with poor credit got little help, even as it became clear many would struggle to keep up with their payments.

Consumers could benefit from a new way to compare the cost of home loans. A dynamic annual rate (DAR) could bring greater transparency to the costs of servicing a mortgage, according to research published by the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML).

Applications for home mortgages climbed for a third straight week as more borrowers sought to refinance loans on which payments may be about to rise, an industry group said on Wednesday.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the biggest sources of U.S. housing finance, can buy $20 billion more in subprime mortgages under rules unveiled on Wednesday to help revive a market crippled by tighter lending standards.

Accredited Home Lenders Holding Co, a struggling subprime mortgage lender, on Tuesday posted a $260.2 million quarterly loss and said it remained unsure it would survive the fallout from a slumping U.S. housing market.

Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc.'s $1.3 billion bet on subprime lending hit a sour note on Monday, when the world's largest brokerage confirmed job cuts at its First Franklin Financial Corp. unit.

First Horizon National Corp, the largest bank in Tennessee, said on Wednesday it plans to eliminate at least 1,500 jobs by the middle of next year as it slashes its mortgage sales force and closes branches.

Countrywide Financial Corp, the largest U.S. mortgage lender, said on Thursday its mortgage fundings slid 17 percent in August from a year earlier to $34 billion on the housing slowdown and credit tightening in the mortgage market.

Mortgage applications rose for a second straight week, fueled by demand for home loans as interest rates sank to their lowest since May, an industry group's figures showed Wednesday. The Mortgage Bankers Association said its seasonally adjusted index of mortgage applications, which includes both purchase and refinance loans, rose 5.5 percent for the week ended September 7.

Many less creditworthy borrowers may lose their homes when interest rates on a flood of adjustable-rate subprime mortgages reset next month.

Some 57 percent of mortgage broker customers were unable to refinance their adjustable-rate loans to avoid higher monthly payments in August, suggesting the U.S. housing slump may worsen, according to a national survey on Tuesday.